Held at the City of Calgary Water Centre in October 2007, the 2-day workshop event attracted an audience if 155, and included a field trip component. “The magnitude of the response was overwhelming and took us by surprise. Clearly, there is an appetite on the part of drainage practitioners and others to learn more about rainwater management,” stated Lilliana Bozic.
“During the period 2000-2001, the mantra in British Columbia was ‘overcoming fear and doubt’ in order to move ahead with projects such as the East Clayton Sustainable Community in the City of Surrey, and UniverCity at Simon Fraser University on Burnaby Mountain in the City of Burnaby. In 2000, translating high expectations into practical design guidelines meant revisiting accepted drainage engineering practice,” stated Kim Stephens.
The University of British Columbia is leading a national initiative that is intended to create a network of experts that collaborate and share their experiences. Richard Boase of the District of North Vancouver made a defining presentation titled 'New Directions in Urban Watershed Health'. “A key message is that we were doing better 50 years ago when we did not even think about the need for rainwater capture,” he observed.
A team led by Dr. Hans Schreier of the University of British Columbia (UBC) kicked off a national ‘knowledge translation strategy’ for rainwater management when it convened a pre-conference workshop, conference and field tour in June 2007 in Vancouver. From a British Columbia perspective, the event design had a distinct Water Balance Model flavour.
“The vocabulary of the drainage practitioner is changing, and is being simplified so that there will be a clearer public understanding of source control options for capturing rain where it falls. This change has seen the single function view of traditional ‘stormwater management’ give way to the integrated and comprehensive perspective that is captured by the term ‘rainwater management’,” stated Ted van der Gulik.
